Crescent City
by lovsamonkesuncleyaya
Summary: 20 Mario characters have been enrolled in a game show where they feature some of the most craziest and dangerous challenges. But, once they arrive at a hotel in Crescent City they realize that the game they are playing is more dangerous than they thought.
1. Chapter 1

This fic was inspired by Dixiegurls' fic "The Games Of Paradise Island". This fic is kinda like that, except that the "games" they will play are more deadly and dangerous and it takes place in a huge city, and it's not like gameshow. (Well, kinda)

Characters...

Mario Luigi Peach Daisy Yoshi Birdo Toadette Toad Dixie Diddy DK Rosalina Koops Parakarry Goombella Mimi Goombario Kooper Wendy Koopa Miss Mowz

The 20 characters had received letters from a woman named Annastasia. Each character who received this has no clue who this woman is. The letter had explained that they are invited to a city called Crescent City, which none of them had heard of before, to participate in a game show called "Tick Tock" which had you do a number of incredibly hard events that were all timed. She explained that the winner will receive 1,000,000 coins and second place would only receive 5,000 coins.

The characters had mixed reactions from this, but they all agreed to go.

A week later, an orange bus had come near each of the guests' houses to pick them up to go to Crescent City. All 20 guests were finally aboard the bus.

"So, what kind of games do you guys think we'll be doing, you guys? The letters said "incredibly hard" events so it will probably be a mix of difficult physical and mental challenges." Goombella said.

"Well, I am up for anything they give to me. The whole point of games like this is to not let your guard down, no matter what." Rosalina spoke while checking her nails.

"I'm pretty sure I'll master all the physical challenges!" DK said in a cocky way.

"Oh get over yourself!" Wendy joked.

"Has anyone even heard of this place called Crescent City? Is it even in or near the Mushroom Kingdom?" Diddy asked.

"Well I've never heard of it. And I travel all over the place too! Must be a deserted, small town if any of us never heard of it..." Parakarry said.

"What about you, Peach? You're the princess of the whole kingdom, so you would know, right?" Birdo quickly asked.

"I...never heard of the name." Peach stuttered and looked down to the ground.

"Oh....kay." Kooper slowly said. "And hey, what's the deal with the bus driver wearing that dark sweater and dark pants? It's incredibly hot outside, so it really doesn't make any sense!"

"I think that's the fad now a days. You know, to wear a sweater or a sweatshirt and jeans out on a hot day." Mimi explained.

"It's a ridiculous fad if you ask me. Sigh...kids will just have to learn." Miss Mowz said.

"Mario? You've been pretty quiet so far. What are you thinking?" Koops asked.

"Oh, just about how the game is gonna go..." Was all Mario replied.

"What I wanna know is, is how this Annastasia girl got our addresses! Is she like a stalker or something or can she find random addresses by googling or what!?" Dixie asked loudly.

"Maybe it's a friend of ours who tried to keep her...or his identity a mystery." Goombario said.

Everyone thought about that, and didn't speak for the rest of the trip.

The bus had finally gotten to Crescent City. The streets were busy with people walking and talking. The sound of a firetruck and police cars was heard nearby but no one seemed to be bothered by it. The bus had eventually parked in to a seemingly reserved parking spot right front of the hotel named "Sparkle Hotel". The building seemed incredibly tall and had fancy windows.

The bus driver had quickly got out and unlocked the...package safe compartment thing and started throwing everyone's bags and suitcase on the ground.

"Well, we're here. I suppose this is where we're gonna stay at. Let's hope nothing bad happens..." Luigi said cautiously and started to get out with the others.

"Toad, I don't know about this...I'm not good at any physical challenges...I say, we should've never agreed to go to this!" Toadette said, getting on to the ground.

"Oh come on! We're here so we might as well just go on with it. Besides, you're a pretty good runner, have you even seen yourself play baseball?" Toad said, with a bright smile.

"Oh...well, ok and thanks Toad. You know I can always count on you for support." Toadette replied. Toad blushed.

"So, bus...man...driver...person, is Annastasia here? And where are we going to play this game show thing?" Daisy asked. The bus driver didn't reply, he just continued throwing the suitcases and bags on the ground.

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" Wendy asked.

"Umm, well it's pretty obvious that he isn't!" Birdo spoke somewhat rudely.

"Bite me!" Wendy yelled back.

"Both of you calm down! Anyways, after this guy is done doing...this, we'll just go in the hotel and see what happens next." Yoshi explained.

"You better not break my glass containered lip gloss, or else something is gonna go down!" Mimi warned.

"Who the hell brings glass containered stuff with them anyway!?" Rosalina asked.

"Obviously Mimi does..." Diddy whispered.

The bus driver was done throwing the stuff on the ground. His hood was up and slowly walked back in to the bus.

"Ummm...thank you for driving us...?" Said Koops shyly and politely.

"Good luck finding your way out of here." The bus driver replied in a hesitant tone.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?!" Mario yelled.

The doors instantly closed and the bus immediately started up and took off with great speed.

"I have a weird feeling about this..." Goombario said. Everyone else decided to shake it off and grabbed their bags and went in to the hotel.

When they got in, they saw nobody there. No one. The lobby had it's chairs and a table for a sitting area that was right in front of them and two elevators not far away from that either.

"Where is everybody? Is this hotel reserved specifically for us?" Diddy spoke.

"I don't know...but I really don't like this, we should leave!" Luigi said hesitantly.

"Oh come on! You seriously think something bad is gonna happen?" DK said.

"It just seems too strange..." Daisy spoke.

"What's that over there!?" Dixie said loudly, pointing to the waiting area chairs. Everyone had quickly walked to there, leaving their luggage at the entrance.

They went to a purple fancy looking chair. It had 3 boxes on the seat and a letter on the middle box. Peach took it and read it:

Dear my 20 fellow friends:

The Sparkle Hotel has been reserved just for our gameshow! The events that will be held will be difficult AND possibly dangerous and some require extreme mental thinking! What I have right here is 3 small purple boxes that have a cupcake in them. The cupcake might taste weird depending on your taste buds, but the 3 people who eat the cupcakes gets an advatage later on. So, this will be your pre-event game. START!!!

Everyone looked at each other, then at the boxes, and then, it was a huge scramble to get the boxes. Everyone was yelling and pushing and even fighting each other for the cupcakes.

"OW!!! STOP STEPPING ON MY FOOT!!!!" Daisy screamed.

"THIS IS SO NOT COOL!!!" Mimi shouted.

"Thank god I don't even care if I get an advantage or not. This is beyond ridiculous." Yoshi said.

"Yeah, people like them would do anything to win." Toad spoke.

So, Diddy had finally eaten his cupcake, Wendy ate hers, and Parakarry got his.

"Dangit Diddy! You should've shared with me!" Dixie pouted.

"Sorry! I panicked trying to eat it!" Diddy replied.

"Ha! Now, looks like we 3 might win the event!" Wendy produly said.

"Grrr...so close to getting that cupcake!" Birdo whispered madly.

"Right then, now what do we....ugh.....I feel....OH!!!!" Parakarry shrieked as he collapsed and made a somewhat disturbing moaning sound as he was holding stomach, clearly in pain.

"What the...? Is he...dying?" Mario spoke.

"No...it must be the..." Peach said, then stopped, realizing that the cupcakes were poisoned.

"OOOOOHHH!!!!" Wendy moaned as well and fell to the ground. She looked like she was about to throw up blood.

"Oh god...this...can't be happening..." Diddy said to himself and collapsed as well.

"Oh my god, those cupcakes were poisoned!" Dixie shrieked.

"That bitch! How dare she do this to our friends!?" Goombella said.

"I wanna go home right now!" Rosalina complained.

"Who doesn't!?" Toadette shrieked.

"Wait a second! What is that...on my suitcase?" Miss Mowz spoke, pointing to her tiny purple suitcase. She quickly walked to it; it was a piece of paper. She read it out loud:

As you all probably know by now, the 3 cupcakes were poisoned. Don't worry, it won't kill you but the effects are pretty extreme, and will be even more extreme if it's not taken care of soon. There are keys on the reception desk that go to a small black car in the parking lot. Start it up, and drive the car over to Paradise Medic Hospital and find a doctor named Dr. Klepto. He will then provide you with the correct treatment and help you cure the poison. The three who ate the cupcakes must choose only one person to go with them to the hospital, just in case of assistance. Good luck!

"Are you for real!? This is one messed up game!!!!" Kooper yelled.

"I say, we should all just get in that black car and drive off and get the hell outta here!" Mario quickly suggested.

"Mario, do you REALLY think that all 20 of us are gonna fit in a tiny car? Plus, all of our luggage would have to go somewhere too! I say, we should just stay here and let those 3 go to the hospital to be cured. It's the better way." Peach said. Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Well then...ugh...the not said we can pick a person to come with us so I pick Dixie." Diddy said. Dixie slowly walked to him and gave him a hug, and looked like she was about to cry.

"I pick...Ooh! I pick Mimi!" Wendy said, trying to ignore her stomach pains.

"Koops! You come with me!" Parakarry quickly said.

"Oh man, this can't be good..." Koops whispered.

"Well then, ahh!!" Diddy shrieked as he felt a quick sharp pain again. He grabbed the keys from the reception desk. "...We are off. Wish us luck..." He said, then the six slowly walked out of the hotel, in fear of what could happen next.

"I hope you survive." Luigi whispered.

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all." Toadette spoke with a scared look.

End of Chapter

So, the "game" has started, and already there is some huge issues going on. Will Wendy, Diddy, and Parakarry survive their poisoning? And who is Annastasia? And why is she making such a messed up game? 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: "What The Hell Is Going On?"

The six left the hotel, and quickly walked to the parking lot. They saw a small, shiny black car in the distance and quickly walked to it.

"Alright, I am driving whether you peoples like it or not!" Mimi said, and grabbed the keys from Didy and got in th drivers seat.

"I hope you know what you're doing!" Koops said in a scared tone, who decided to sit in the passenger seat. Everyone else sat in the back as the three poisoned ones would get carsick more easily if they wre in front.

Mimi started the ignition and got the car going. She quickly drove out of the parking lot and in to the streets.

"Alright does anyone know where Paradise Medic Hospital is!?" Mimi quickly asked.

"How are we suppose to know!? We haven't even been in this city for a half an hour!" Dixie said.

"Freakin great!" Mimi replied.

She was driving like a total maniac in the street and cars were honking at her for getting in their way.

"Jesus! What the hell is wrong with drivers these days!!" Mimi said, commenting on the annoying people honking at her. She was driving as fast as she could, with her and Koops looking everywhere for the hospital.

"WAIT!! I THINK THAT'S IT DOWN THERE!!!" Koops shouted, pointing at a right intersection road, at an intersection they had to stop at.

"Yes yes! We found it!!" Mimi cheered and stopped behind a car that was waiting for the light to turn green.

"Ooh man...I think this is the worst pain I've ever felt in my life..." Diddy spoke and groaned.

"It's okay, everything will be just fine, I promise." Dixie said, trying to comfort him.

The light turned green and the car ahead started to drive fast forward.

"Alright, now we turn right and we'll get there!" Mimi cheered. She turned right on to the most left lane and drove really fast.

"Ugh, I won't be surprised if I throw up blood at this rate..." Parakarry said.

Suddenly, another car came out of a nearby parking lot that begun driving in her lane just to get to the other side of the street.

"OH MY GOD!! GET OUT OF THE WAY, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" Mimi screamed as she swerved the car to the right, just barely missing it. She then swerved very hard to the left to the hospital, barely missing another car.

"Jesus Christ Mimi! You could've gotten us killed!" Dixie shrieked. Her heart was racing.

"Sorry! These people get in my way too much!" Mimi replied as she parked. "Now, let's go before something tragic happens!"

"Oh man, please don't make me worry about that!" Koops said, obviously very worried. He opened the back door and helped everyone get out.

"Ugh, this is the worst feeling I had ever since I ate Bowser's homemade tuna rolls..." Wendy said to herself as she and the other five were walking as quick as they could to the hospital.

Back at the hotel, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Goombario, Goombella, and DK decided to explore the second floor while everyone else decided to chill in the lobby.

In the Lobby (Yoshi Birdo Toad Toadette Rosalina Kooper Miss Mowz):

"So, what do you guys think about this game so far...? Actually, I'm not even sure if 'game' is the right word for it..." Rosalina said.

"I think this is totally fucked up." Kooper spoke. "This bitch, Annastasia, who we don't even know, set up a game for us, only to have a couple of our friends to be poisoned due to eating a few cupcakes that somehow gets you an advantage!" Kooper complained.

"Yeah, once I saw that's what you had to do, I was suspicious of it ever since. I mean come on, eating cupcakes just to get an advantage for the game? Who's dumb idea was that!?" Toad ranted.

"I say, when those six come back, we all try to get on to a bus that goes back to Mushroom City. We all have money so it works well that way." Birdo suggested.

"Good point there. The thing is though, this girl can supposedly find our addresses and track us down. So, I don't think we're safe even back at home." Yoshi said.

"Ugh, this just keeps getting more worse and confusing..." Toadette complained, while rubbing her temples.

"We should just call the police, give the notes we have from Annastasia, give it to them and then they can do those forensic stuff like UV Lighting for fingerprints." Miss Mowz suggested. Kooper gave her a weird look.

"Don't only FBI Investigators do stuff like that?" Toadette asked.

"Well, the police can send it in to the FBI investigators I think. I've played both of those Condemned games and it uses all these high-tech devices like the UV lighting, laser light, sampler, and gas spectrometer. Maybe they could use that stuff for the notes." Yoshi explained.

"That's good! So maybe we can..." But Toad stopped as he stared at something standing in the doorway to the outside. "Ummm, can we help you?" He politely asked. Everyone turned to where Toad was staring to and saw a toad girl with a neon-green spotted mushroom and black hair.

"I...I'm trying to find my 3 year old son. Some guy in a black shirt and pants stole him away from me in my home while I was doing the laundry...I figured this place was where he would go to as it's close to my home, and abandoned, and there's no other place within a couple miles where he could hide at..." Explained the girl. She had a depressed look on her face.

"Oh...poor thing! We'll help you find your son!" Birdo said in sympathy.

"But wait...we didn't see anybody come in or out of this hotel when we were here the whole time...umm, when did your child get kidnapped?" Toadette asked, very confused.

"Oh...I guess a couple hours ago..." Said the girl quietly.

"Toadette, we were here for only a hour..." Yoshi said, looking to her. Toadette shook her head.

"I'm not buying this." Kooper spoke. Miss Mowz and the girl gasped.

"What are you saying!? We have to help this woman find her child! We can't just let that go so easily!" Miss Mowz yelled.

"Yeah, don't be so heartless!" Birdo yelled as well.

"No no, think about it, we just found out that three of our friends have been poisoned by eating cupcakes, which was a stupid way to get an advantage by the way, then we have 3 more of our friends to go with them to the hospital, and now we have THIS!? Sorry, but I'm not falling for it. This game is already getting too dangerous and I think this woman is just a trick for us to get in to danger!" Kooper explained aggressively.

"But I NEED my child back though! Please, this is not fake! I promise!" The girl cried.

"Kooper, think about what you're saying! It will be OUR fault if the child is killed by the kidnapper!" Toadette yelled.

"Here..I'll give you all 50 bucks if you get my child back!" The girl pleaded, getting out her wallet.

"50 bucks!? Make that 100 bucks! Who knows what we could be getting in to with this!" Toad demanded.

"Toad don't be an asshole!" Toadette remarked.

"I don't know you guys...this COULD be a trick..." Miss Mowz said, clearly thinking about the whole thing.

"Rosalina, what do you think about this?" Yoshi asked and turned to her.

"What! Why are you asking me for!?" Rosalina snapped.

"Because you're probably the smartest and most reasonable one here!" Yoshi explained.

"Well........umm....." Was all Rosalina said. She looked at everyone and saw different expressions on each face that clearly told her what they were thinking or feeling.

Rosalina thought hard. It would be a kind, and a very generous thing to offer help to someone to find their child. But at the same time, it's always possible that the girl was merely just an actress, who could lead them in to danger if they offered to help. She started to sweat. Her heart was beating faster and faster.

SECOND FLOOR:

"Nice floor, reminds of my wall decorations at the castle..." Peach said.

"Gloater alert!" Goombario joked. Peach smiled.

"This hotel seems very abandoned...well, it probably is. But it feels like it's been this way for a long time..." Luigi said. The group got to a long hallway with doors to rooms on each side.

"Ever since we got to this hotel, I knew things didn't seem right. I just had a feeling this is too strange." Daisy said.

"Well, I didn't feel things were right when I got the letter from this girl I don't even know! I can't believe I went through with this...and now my brother is deathly sick..." DK said sadly.

"Mario? You haven't talked that much for the whole day. You feeling okay?" Goombella asked.

"Oh no, I'm fine. I'm just thinking very hard." Mario happily replied.

"You sure? You just seem to be acting different ever since we got on that bus..." Peach said to him.

"No I'm fine! Really! I'm just more focused on this now." Mario reassured.

"Okay..." Peach said back, still a bit worried for him.

"Well, nothing seems suspicious up here, I guess we should-" But Daisy stopped talking as they all heard the sound of a door opening. They all turned to the hallway where the rooms were and saw a man dressed in a black shirt and black pants come out of the room.

"Umm, hello? Do you live here by any place?" Goombella spoke in slight worry. The person shrieked.

"Oh! You scared me! I didn't realize people still lived here...ummm..." The person said with worried looks.

"We don't live here, we're just here because we're competing in some sort of game that's incredibly chaotic." Goombario said in a way.

"Oh well, I have a favor to ask you guys... you see, I have a child with me, who rightfully belongs to me. My crazy ex-wife wants him back but I know she can't handle raising him by herself! So, what I want you guys to do is drive my car that's in the back parking lot to the north outskirts of the city, which is right near where my new GF is. And I can't drive well, so this would be a perfect opportunity for you guys to help me! If you succeed, I'll give you each a hundred bucks!" The man quickly explained.

"A hundred bucks? Sweet! I'm in!" Daisy cheered.

"Woah woah woah hold on a second!" Peach shouted. "I don't think we should trust this guy, I mean come in, he's got the word 'burglar' written all over him!"

"I agree. We shouldn't this." Goombella said.

"Well, if you don't help me then you'll have to pay the consequences..." The man said as he got out a handgun.

"WOAH!!! DON'T KILL US!!" DK shrieked.

"Oh my god, what do we do Mario? WHAT DO WE DO!?" Peach shrieked.

"...We should help him. Our other friends are in trouble already, and we can't have more trouble coming around. Let's do it." Mario said courageously.

"Oh man..." Goombario whispered.

"Sweet! Now, I'll get the boy, and we'll go down the emergency staircase which leads to the back parking lot. You guys will drive the car to the outskirts and then I'll pay you if you get it done safe and right." The man said, then went back in to the room to get the boy.

"I hope you know what you're getting us in to." Daisy said to Mario, in an almost threatening way.

EOC.

So, what decision will the Lobby's group make for the girl? Will the others on the Second floor succeed with their mission? And who will be completely cured at the hospital, and who won't? 


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry that I haven't updated for so long, I've been to all kinds of stuff during the last few months! But I HAVE got Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 done. I'm currently in the progress of editing them and making changes and deleting things to make it look good.

Someone will die in this Chapter...

Chapter 3: Are We Safe Now?

The six entered the hospital. It looked like any other regular hospital.

"Umm, excuse me?" Mimi said to the receptionist. "Do you know where Dr. Klepto is?"

"Go to second floor by elevator then take a right, he's in the first door." The receptionist said in a strict way.

"Ohhh kay then...let's go!" Mimi gestured. Everyone else quickly followed her to the elevator and went in.

"God, I feel like I'm gonna die!" Diddy moaned in a dry voice.

"It's okay, we're almost there, you're gonna make it through." Dixie said calmly.

"I can't believe this is happening to us...who ever thought something like this would happen anyway?" Koops said.

"Well, strange things happen everyday to people around the world." Dixie responded to him.

"Thing is though, is that this situation can't even be considered 'strange', more like dangerous and cruel." Said Wendy.

"I know, how can a living person do such a thing to innocent people like us?" Parakarry said, trying to ignore his pains.

"Nobody is really innocent..." Diddy whispered.

The doors opened and the six exited the elevator. They turned right and went to the first door. They entered.

"Ahah! I've been expecting you guys! Wendy, Parakarry, and Diddy Kong are the sick ones right?" Asked the doctor. The 3 shook their heads.

"Wait, how do you know their names? Have you been stalking us?" Dixie asked.

"No, I have received a call just 5 minutes ago from a girl named LoLo saying that 3 people named Wendy, Parakarry, and Diddy Kong will be coming to the hospital because of severe stomach pains." The doctor explained hesitantly. Mimi raised an eyebrow.

"LoLo? What the hell? First there is Annastasia, then there is LoLo...just who ARE these people!" Mimi said. There was silence for a moment.

"Well anyways, I suggest we get started now before the pains turn worse. You 3! Up here on the mattress!" Klepto demanded. Wendy, Diddy, and Parakarry sat on the mattress with hurt looks on their faces.

"Now, to determine what kind of stomach flu this is, we have to first check your temperature." Klepto calmly said and got a temperature gauge and put it under Wendy's tongue.

"Umm are you sure we should trust this guy? These people around here don't seem very nice at all...I'm kind of scared." Koops whispered to Dixie.

"Not sure, but this guy is all we have for now. So, we have to put some trust in him at least." She whispered back.

"Hmm, just as I suspected! All of their temperatures are at 105 and there seems to be a lot of dehydration. This is nothing more than a typical case of severe stomach flu!" Klepto said.

"How is THAT typical!" Mimi yelled.

"It just is. Now, I'm going to give you 3, medication pills for your flu. This is first class treatment here, so use it wisely! Take two pills every 3 hours and your flu should heal up in no time!" Klepto said while giving the 3 the pill bottles.

"Wait a second, pills can't work that fast! Do you really think you're gonna pull one off on us?" Mimi said, raising her voice.

"Well, they either take the pills or they don't. You decide!" He said with slight anger.

"These 'pills' seem too good to be true...are they poisonous?" Mimi thought.

"We'll just take them, now let's go PLEASE!" Wendy said and ran out of the room with everyone else.

"I wonder if these pills are safe to take...I don't really trust that doctor!" Parakarry said with worry.

"Oh, just take it! It's better than having to deal with the stomach pains!" Dixie demanded. The 3 took 2 pills instantly.

"Now that is overwith we can...hello! What's this?" Koops said as he noticed a big white piece of paper with writing on it in red ink. He picked it up and read:

DEPARTMENT STORE HAS THE KEYS 2 LIVE!

"Department store, what the hell? And the keys to live? What is this thing talking about?" Diddy asked.

"I dunno, but I have a feeling we should go there as it says the department store has the keys to live. We have to ask someone where a department store could be as it could help us get out of this city." Parakarry said.

"But there could be tons of department stores here! Plus, how would we know where to go once we're in one?" Mimi said.

"Looks like we're gonna have to find out...oh, hey you! Yeah you, can you help us out here please?" Dixie spoke. A nurse toad came up to the group. "Can you tell us where we can find a department store?"

"There's 2 department stores in this city. There's one on Tow Street and one on Kamia Boulevard. Which one would you want to go to?" The nurse asked.

"Wait a second...oh! On Tow Street! Yeah!" Koops exclaimed.

"Oh, that one? Just exit from the parking lot, turn left, left again, and make a right and the department store is at the end of the street." Said the nurse.

"Umm, thank you very much for your help." Wendy said.

"How did you know we'd have to go on the Tow Street one?" Mimi asked.

"Cause, you don't think it's coincidence that there is a '2' replacing the 'to' in the paper? Just switch W with O in Tow and you get Two! It makes perfect sense!" Koops answered brightly.

"Nice reasoning! Now let's get a move on as we can't keep the others waiting all day long!" Dixie gestured and the six ran out of the hospital.

MEANWHILE...

The seven Mario characters on the second floor ran down the emergency staircase along with the 'guy' and the baby. They ran to the guy's silver van and the Guy got in the passenger's seat, Mario got in the driver's seat and everyone else was in the back.

"Use this key." The guy said, handing him a yellow key that had a star shape on top of the key. Mario took a weird glance at it, but decided to ignore it and started the ignition.

"Do you think we'll be safe with this guy? I don't trust him at all!" Goombella whispered to DK.

"Not sure. Who knows what can happened now that this 'game' has started...wait a second, IS this a part of the game?" DK asked quietly. Goombella heard this and wondered herself.

"Right then, just keep going straight until I say where to turn to next." The guy said, rocking the baby in his arms.

"God, I feel like I'm about to pass out. This is just too much for me and I can feel my heart beating faster by the minute." Daisy thought.

As Mario crossed an intersection, 2 cars suddenly went right past the front of the car as if they came out of nowhere which made Mario lose control which had the car pretty much go in a zig-zaggy way down the street.

"JESUS! What the hell was that all about!" Goombario shrieked.

"It's those goddamn Sunday drivers! And it's only Saturday!" Mario replied and regained control of the van.

"Did they do that on purpose?" Luigi thought.

"Kay, now turn right, here!" The guy said. The van was at an intersection and Mario heavily turned the van to the right as he was panicking as he didn't want to get hit by any other car.

BANG!

There was a gunshot heard and the bullet smashed the right window, right near where Peach was.

"OH MY GOD! WHAT IS GOING ON!" Luigi screamed and started to cry.

"People are trying to kill us! Let me out of here, I don't wanna die!" Peach screamed and tried to open the right door.

"No! Stay in here! It's too dangerous to be out there...especially in this part..." The man said, lookin at his baby. Peach stopped and thought about what he said for a second.

"Wait a second...did he just say that this part of the city is dangerous? Oh my god, I think this WHOLE city is dangerous!" Peach thought.

"Turn left." He said, and Mario did. The neighborhood Mario was going into seemed like a rich, and classy area surprisingly.

"Stop! This is my house here, thank you so much for driving me here!" The guy said as he got out the van.

"Excuse me, but aren't you forgetting something?" Daisy asked with a smirk.

"Yeah yeah, I haven't forgot." He gets out his wallet that was black, but had a white and very noticeable crescent moon on the front. Everyone couldn't help but stare at it.

"Here ya go." He handed Mario 700 dollars. "100 dollars for each of ya. Also, you can keep the van as my girlfriend's is way better plus the broken window would be annoying...have fun!" He hesitantly said, then ran off to his house.

"Umm, okay then. Well at least something good came out of this! We got money and we got a van! This is our tickets out of here so let's go back to the hotel, pick everyone up and get the hell out of this whack ass town!" Daisy demanded.

"Daisy, 20 people can't even fit in this van. Only 10 at the most maybe. We need to somehow get another van that way everyone can fit in a van THEN we can leave!" Goombario explained.

"Sigh...I have a good feeling it's gonna be incredibly hard to just steal a van from some random person. Let's just go back to the hotel. We can't just leave the others anyway..." Peach said.

"Nobody said we were leaving the others Peach, now let's just go back and figure out what we're gonna do next. I hope the others aren't hurt..." DK said. Mario started the ignition and drove off.

Rosalina didn't know what to do. She could be falling for a trap if she wanted to help the woman, but if she rejects her then she just let a thief take an innocent woman's baby away and she'll regret it for the rest of her life.

"MAKE YOUR DECISION ALREADY!" Birdo yelled, as she couldn't handle the immense pressure on them now.

"I...I made my decision. We will NOT help you. I find it odd that you show up right after our other friends left! This seems like a whole set up, probably done by that Annastasia bitch! Do you honestly believe that I could be so dumb to believe this act! Hell no! Now take your ass home before I SERIOUSLY explode." Rosalina yelled with anger in her eyes. She was sweating and breathing heavily and her heart was racing.

Toadette, Birdo, and Yoshi were shocked at Rosalina's decision while Toad, Miss Mowz, and Kooper were finally relieved that she finally made the decision.

"Alright then...-sniff- if that's the way it's gonna be..." The toad whispered and went into her purse.

"Let's see how you feel once you're dead!" She got a gun and pointed it at Rosalina.

"NO WAIT!" Yoshi screamed.

She pulled the trigger and the bullet shot out at the spped of light.

Rosalina, however, ducked at just he perfect moment and just barely dodged the bullet.

Unfortunately, Kooper was right behind Rosalina, therefore making the bullet speed into his chest and out his back.

"OH!" Kooper shrieked as he fell to the ground and his blood splattered to the wall behind him.

"OH NOOOOOOOO!" Miss Mowz screamed in shock. She couldn't believe she saw someone get shot right in front of her. That image will never go away for as long as she lives.

"Oh my god, Kooper!" Toad shrieked and went to him. Kooper was bleeding badly as his blood trickled down his sides and on the floor.

"We need to call an ambulance ASAP!" Toadette said, trying not to cry.

"Wait! He's trying to say something!" Rosalina said and she got closer to his mouth.

"Kill...that...bitch..." He said with heavy fast breaths in between the words as he was in too much pain to talk normally.

Kooper stopped breathing.

"Noooooooooooooooo!" Toadette cried.

"I don't believe it...we get here to this hotel to play a 'game', not knowing what dangers would happen, and then...Kooper's just dead." Miss Mowz said with tears flowing down her cheeks.

Yoshi got up and turned around in fierce anger to face the girl who killed Kooper. She was gone.

"You gotta be kidding me, she freakin escaped!" He announced.

"Are you serious! That little bitch! Ohhhh boy, she is gonna regret that she ever did this!" Toadette said while clenching her fists.

"That should've been me who died...not Kooper...oh god, what have I done? If I said yes to that girl then Kooper wouldn't have been shot...that was suppose to be me who died." Rosalina said while staring hard at Kooper's body. She felt so much guilt at that point that she thought she was gonna faint and never wake up.

"Rosalina, don't say that, okay? It's terrible that Kooper died, yes but you avoided YOUR death therefore your time isn't up. And it's not your fault that he died, what you did when she shot the bullet was just a natural reflex. It just so happened that Kooper was right behind you when you doged the bullet..." Birdo said trying to comfort her.

Everyone heard what Birdo said, but they were confused. It seemed like Birdo wasn't even worried about what happened to Kooper. It's like she pretended that the whole thing never happened. Or maybe it was something else...

EOC.

So, Kooper unfortunately died by the hands of a woman who just wanted her baby back. Rosalina is extremely guilty about this, but Birdo doesn't seem to be affected by his death that much; especially since it happened right in front of her.

There will be some betrayal next chapter. Who do you think will be the betrayer? Will Wendy, Parakarry, and Diddy actually get better from their stomach pains? And who is LoLo and Annastasia? (I'll give ya a hint, it's NOT a character that's already playing, and it's NOT a character who appeared on the N64, or any other Nintendo systems that was before that.)

R And R! 


	4. Chapter 4

Last time, Kooper had died because of a girl who shot him as she was angry that none of the 7 on the first floor helped her. Rosalina feels guilty about this but Birdo doesn't seem affected by it at all. What's gonna happen now?

* * *

Chapter 4: What's In The Box?

The remaining six in the hotel covered Kooper's body with a large table cloth as none of them couldn't handle staring at his body for another second...except for Birdo who didn't mind it at all.

"You know, I just realized something...why couldn't we have gone up to the second floor and ask our friends about what to do with this girl? We were down here for like 20 minutes wondering what we should do, when we should've got the others to come down here!" Toadette said with a depressed sigh.

"I guess we were too caught up in what was happening. Let's go to the second floor and tell the others what happened. I feel so stupid because we didn't go to them in the first place!" Toad said then started to walk towards the elevator.

"Maybe we felt like we could've done this by ourselves because all of us here are almost never the main heroes of anything. We're always the ones out of the spotlight and we never get noticed much by the media as all the attention is on Mario, Luigi, Peach and Daisy...just a thought." Miss Mowz said. Yoshi gave her a weird look while Birdo thought about what she said.

"Don't be so ridiculous!" Birdo lashed. "We obviously didn't have the time to go up to the 2nd floor and ask them what we should do. That baby could've been taken away by the time that bitch even got here!"

"What the hell is up with you! I'm JUST saying ya know! And for some reason, you've been acting differently ever since we got here! Maybe you're forming some sort of a plan perhaps?" Said Miss Mowz with her hands at her hips.

"Oh, give me a break! I'm just frustrated that all this had to happen! Stop acting like you know what we are thinking!" Birdo yelled.

"Please stop fighting! We already had something terrible happen and we don't need something else to make the situation worse!" Toadette yelled, getting in the middle of them too.

"That should've been me who died...it should've been me..." Rosalina whispered, staring into space.

"Man, I knew that coming here would be a bad decision. Hell, we all should've known that a letter coming from a person we didn't know would've been enough to tell us that we shouldn't go!" Toad complained. He decided to lay down on the floor as he was a bit tired.

"Well I'm pretty sure all of us said 'why not?' and decided to go, but now I realize that you shouldn't believe everything you read..." Yoshi said.

"I agree...but now I wonder what's gonna happen next after this? There's 19 of us left so odds are is that something bad will happen to a few of us." Said Toadette.

"But this Annastasia person...she seems to have everything planned out. She probably knows what we would do in certain situations therefore knowing our first, second, and maybe even our third steps!" Said Miss Mowz.

"I wonder who Annastasia could be? I don't recognize the name at all! This person must be really good at keeping their identity a secret cause no one knows who this is..." Rosalina said.

"Maybe it's Bowser trying to get back at us for defeating him so many times?" Toad asked.

"No, it can't be. Wendy is in this 'game' and I doubt he would let his daughter get in to danger." Yoshi said.

"Alright so it's not him...uhhh oh I know! Wario and Waluigi! They obviously set this whole thing up because they hate us good guys and plus, who else in the Kingdom has over a million coins? Wario and Waluigi cause of their lame ass greediness!" Birdo spoke.

"Of course, it all makes sense! But there has to be more of a motive than that though! It has to go deeper than that..." Toad replied.

"It's not Wario and Waluigi. Both of them are incredibly dumb so there is no way they could set up a game like this. It has to be someone that is so clever and rich...someone that we haven't talked to for a long time..." Miss Mowz said.

"Ugh this is just giving me a headache. I say let's just wait for the others to get here and then we'll figure this out." Toadette recommended.

"Sigh...I have a feeling it won't be so easy this time..." Rosalina quietly said.

* * *

The six (Dixie, Diddy, Mimi, Parakarry, Koops, Wendy) got in the black shiny car as they were heading to the Department Store on Tow Street.

"Alright, I'm driving again! Just buckle up real tight cause I got a feeling it won't be so smooth going to the store." Mimi said.

"How do you feel Diddy?" Dixie asked as she got in the back with him.

"Actually I feel a lot better! Those pills actually work amazingly!" Diddy said with a relieved sigh.

"Yeah, I feel better too. Who knew pills could work THAT fast?" Parakarry said as he got in the back as well with Wendy.

"Same here!" Wendy shouted.

But Koops knew something wasn't right about this. There is just no way pills could work that fast. Something must be replacing the stomach pains they had. Or worse. He slowly buckled his seatbelt in the front passenger seat as he thought about this. His breathing got faster and faster.

Mimi started up the ignition and immediately drove out of the parking lot. She turned sharply to the left and on to main right lane.

"Wait, how do we even know we're going the right way? We have to stop and ask someone for directions!" Wendy said.

"Hell no! I don't think we can trust anybody in this town! Looks like we'll have to be on our own." Mimi replied and drove as fast as she could.

She eventually stopped at a red light. The lane she was on was right next to a dirty looking store with, what looked like, a bunch of gang member toads.

"Hey you! People in the black car! Do you got any spare money you can lend?" Said a green toad.

"Sorry, we don't have any money right now!" Dixie said as she rolled down the window more.

"Come on don't play us like that! We are in DIRE need of money!" Said a purple toad.

"Look, we don't have any money at all! So please leave us alone!" Diddy yelled.

"What? You think you can mess with us like that?" Said a yellow toad as the gang got closer to the car.

"Don't come any closer! Back the hell off!" Wendy yelled. Koops got more scared by the minute.

"Bitch!" Yelled a dark blue toad then ran to the car and tried to pull Dixie out.

"AHHHHHHHH! GET HIM OFF OF ME!" Dixie screamed. Diddy, Wendy, and Parakarry tried to pull her back as best as they could.

The gang members then started to beat on the car and a red toad started to smash the front window with a huge rock.

"JESUS CHRIST! GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Koops screamed.

There was a gunshot heard. It shot right through Koops' window and the bullet just barely missed him.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my gooood!" Mimi yelled and then floored it. The car zoomed at a high speed out of the area and passed the intersection. The car also just barely missed another car that was turning right in to the lane they were on.

Another gunshot was heard. The bullet shot through the back window and out the front. Everyone jumped at this and kept their head down but it made Mimi go out of control.

"SHOOOOOOOT!" Mimi screamed as the car went zig-zaggy all over the street making the other cars have to avoid it as best as they can.

Mimi was panicking to the extreme as she tried to keep the car going straight. She was almost about to cry because she couldn't handle it anymore.

"TOW STREET! THERE IT IS!" Parakarry yelled as he pointed to the street sign that said the name. She kept driving on as straight as she could and got to a 3 way intersection, turned sharply left, and then

BAM!

The right side of the car crashed in to another car that was going the same way.

"Oh just freakin great!" Diddy yelled in helplessness.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing stupid bitch!" Said an angry guy as he got out of the car.

"Screw what he says, keep going!" Wendy yelled. Mimi began to floor it again but as she did, a huge beer bottle smashed on to the top of the car and the glass parts slid down the front window.

"You gotta be kidding me! GO GO GO!" Dixie yelled as loud as she could. This city was like crawling with dangerous people.

A few minutes later, they finally arrived at the department store.

"Oh my god...that was probably the most scariest moment of my life..." Parakarry said while trying to calm himself down. Everyone was trying to calm themselves down as well as their hearts were beating very fast.

"God, this has to be the most dangerous city in the world. Never have I seen people act like that before! I wanna go home!" Dixie cried and started to bite her nails.

"Well...we're at the department store now. Might as well go in since we're here." Diddy said. They all got out of the car and quickly walked up the steps and in to the department store.

The six were shocked at how the inside looked.

Everything was a complete mess. There was piles of trash everywhere such as cardboard pieces, leather, torn papers, dirt, and other pieces of junk.

"Jesus! Why the hell didn't that girl from the hospital mention that this place was a deserted filthy mess!" Mimi said.

"Like I said, this is probably the most dangerous city in the world. These people want us dead, it couldn't have been more obvious!" Dixie said with slight panic.

"We just need to be more careful from now on. Extremely careful." Koops quietly said.

They walked forward slowly. The entire lobby room they were in was pretty much destroyed. All there was left was just an empty floor with junk all over it.

"I have a bad feeling someone else is in here, watching us..." Parakarry said quietly.

"Maybe it's Annastasia? Or LoLo? Or more gang members?" Said Wendy.

"Please don't say that. I don't wanna have another ambush coming at us." Dixie said.

"How are we suppose to know where to go anyway? The 'keys' could be anywhere in this place!" Mimi said while cautiously looking around.

"Ummm, over there I guess?" Koops pointed out. He pointed to a wall at the end of the room that had a big red arrow pointing to the right.

"Well, this should be easy! Let's go!" Diddy said and started to walk forward but Mimi stopped him.

"Wait, how are you so sure nothing will happen if we go that way? This is what this person wants us to do! We're going right in to a trap!" Said Mimi.

"Well how can you be so sure something will happen then? We won't know if we don't go either way. Let's just go." Parakarry said. The group continued to walk forward and as soon as they got near the end wall, they turned right, where the arrow was pointing to.

They continued to walk, while still looking cautiously around them just in case someone was gonna jump out of nowhere and attack them. In fact, that thought was on everyones mind the minute they walked in the store.

"Oh no!" Mimi shrieked. "This stupid gate is in the way! How are we suppose to get past this!"

They all went to the silver gate that was hindering them from going any further. From what they could see, the path they were on led to a very wide and open area. It was where the escalators and elevators were and they all led to either the ground floor or the second floor.

"Well, so much for going through all that Effed up trouble to get here!" Diddy said with obvious frustration.

"No...wait a second, there's a door here..." Koops said quietly. There was a huge cardboard piece that filled up the entire wall basically. He threw it aside, and he was right, there was a door there!

"Huh, nice job! Let's go in!" Dixie gestured. Koops opened the door and went in first then everyone else.

It was a staircase. On the right wall, there was an arrow pointing up therefore the group went up the staircase. The lights in the stairwell were still working, but they were very dim.

As they got up the first set of stairs. On the big wall in front of him, it had been written over in big black letters that said: **DON'T COME UP HERE.**

"Woah! Wait a second! I don't think we should do this, that message is CLEARLY a threat!" Wendy said as she started to shake with fear.

"No, we have to keep going. We didn't come all the way here for nothing." Dixie said trying to reassure her.

The group continued to walk up another set of stairs. They got to an area where a door was. On the right side of the door, there was a spray painted pointing to it. But on the left side of the door, there was spray painted letters all in black that were less big than the message before: **WE TRIED TO KILL YOU BEFORE AND WE'LL DO IT AGAIN.**

"Oh my god...I REALLY don't think we should go further than this! Can we PLEASE go back!" Wendy pleaded. She looked like she was about to cry.

"No! We have to do this!" Parakarry said. Diddy opened the door and the group walked down a narrow hallway leading to a door at the end.

As soon as they got to the door, they looked to the left wall to find another message in black spray paint. It had said: **TO HELL.** And it had an arrow pointing to the door.

"Okay, this person obviously does not want us here so we MUST leave, please!" Wendy pleaded with panic.

"No way! We're so close to finding the...'keys' here!" Mimi said.

"Well obviously you must've not paid attention to the messages before, those were all clearly threats not to go in there!" Wendy said.

"Look, we are going in there whether you like it or not. We have to do this." Dixie said, trying to calm her down.

"I suggest you be careful opening the door." Parakarry said. "There's obviously something bad in there if these threatening messages lead to this door."

Diddy thought carefully about what he said. He started to sweat and took a big gulp. He put his hand on the doorknob.

Diddy opened the door as fast as he could...

And there was nothing in the room except for a giant office desk in the middle. There was also a window that shone bright light in to the room.

"Oh thank god! I thought I was gonna have a panic attack!" Koops said, very relieved. In fact all of them were relieved to find that there seemed to be no trap in there.

"Finally! Now let's get these keys and get out of here!" Mimi quickly said. Parakarry went to the desk. He opened the main drawer and found six keys.

One key was pink with a heart shape on top, one was green with a clover-ish shape on top, one was golden and had a lightning bolt on top, one was crystal colored with a snowflake indentation on top, one was orange colored with the Sun on top, and the other one was plain blue with the water drop symbol identation on top.

"Umm...what the hell do all these keys fit in to? And what's the point of having these symbols on the keys?" Dixie asked outloud, but they were all just as clueless as she was.

"Who knows but we'll find out later as we need to get going. I guess we all should take a key." Parakarry said. He got the 'Sun' key, Koops got the 'Lightning Bolt' key, Dixie got the 'Clover' key, Mimi got the 'Heart' key, Diddy got the 'Snowflake' key, and Wendy got the 'Water Drop' key.

* * *

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Goombario, Goombella and DK finally made it back to the hotel from their new silver van. Mario kept the 'star' key that was used to start the van in his kept.

The six also arrived back at the hotel right after they did.

"Oh thank god, you're finally back!" Toad cheered in relief and ran up to Peach and hugged her.

"Heh. Nice to see you guys too. Boy, do we got a story to tell you!" Peach said as she and everyone else got into the living room of the lobby.

"Ooh! Us too! It was EXTREMELY crazy too!" Diddy said.

"Hey, we also have a crazy story to tell too! Weird..." Yoshi said. Everyone looked at each other with confused looks.

"Okay umm...well I'll start with my group." Luigi spoke.

He explained how he and the others met with this guy dressed in black on the second floor that had a baby. He explained that he took his baby away cause his ex GF was crazy. Then they all agreed to help him get to his new GF's house with the baby. They took the guys silver van and drove to the North part of town where it seemed slightly dangerous to be around at. They finally got to the guys house and he paid them all and said that they could keep the van.

"Wait a second...a baby was on the second floor? Oh my god...the lady that was here earlier was looking for that baby!" Miss Mowz said in shock. Everyone else gasped.

The first floor group explained that a woman came in here after the six left, looking for her baby. They weren't sure whether the woman was an actress or was actually real about it. But the group decided that she faking it as it was way too coincidental that after everyone left, SOMEHOW this girl came here. The girl got angry and got out a gun and shot at Rosalina but she barely dodged it and the bullet hit Kooper instead. The girl immediately ran away.

"Are...you serious?" Koops stuttered. He looked to the corner of the 'living room area' and saw a small body with a white table cloth over it.

"What a bitch! Why didn't she call the police instead! Ugh, I'm gonna go insane because of this!" Daisy yelled in frustration.

"I know, right!" Toadette agreed.

"Just freakin great. One person is dead and who knows how many more will die?" DK said.

"This is NOT a game, this is just someone that likes to torture us and watch us squirm!" Goombella said.

"Alright, you guys explain what happened with you." Birdo said to the six.

The six explained that they went to the hospital to see Dr. Klepto. They explained that they were kinda suspicious of him but they had no other choice but to get Wendy, Parakarry, and Diddy better. The doctor gave the 3 some sort of miracle pill that somehow worked almost instantly. They got out of the doctors room and found a note on the floor that said "DEPARTMENT STORE HAS KEYS 2 LIVE." They were confused about this at first, but asked a nurse where a department store was and she said there was one on Kamia Street and Tow Street. Koops figured out that it was Tow Street where they had to go as the 2 in the message was there for a reason. They drove to there but on the way they found a gang that was trying to rob them and shoot them. They got out of there unharmed and finally got to the department. They said that it was a complete mess and trash was everywhere. There were spray painted arrows on the walls that were leading them to the 'keys and they lead to a staircase. As they went up the stairs they found threatening messages that basically told them to 'get out of here'. But they kept going and eventually came to a normal room (finally). Parakarry looked in the drawer and found 6 keys that had different symbols on each of them. The symbols were, Sun, Snowflake, Lightning Bolt, Clover, Heart, and Water Drop on all the keys. Then they finally got out of there.

There was silence that filled the room for a minute. All of them could not believe that the others had went through some sort of hell too.

"Well..." Goombario spoke trying to ruin the silence. "Any idea what those keys are for?"

"No idea at all." Wendy spoke for the group.

Mario reached in to his pocket and got out the star key from the van. He was gonna mention that he had a key with a symbol on it too, but decided to wait for later.

"Kinda odd how all this stuff happened when we were all split apart. It's like that was done on purpose..." Yoshi said.

"Obviously! This guy...or girl seems to have every single thing planned out! Must've been planning this 'game' for quite a long time..." Birdo said.

Peach noticed that Rosalina looked depressed and kinda had her head down. She was curious about what was wrong with her but decided to ask her later.

"So, what are we gonna do now? One person is already dead and it's very likely that this bastard will come back for more." Mimi spoke.

"I say we should take sleeping shifts. It's getting late and all of us tired anyways. But we need to do that just in case this guy tries to attack us or forms another plan..." Goombella said.

"Good idea! I suggest we all sleep down here though cause it's better to be safe then sorry!" Daisy said.

"Right. While you guys do this, I have to use the bathroom!" Birdo quickly spoke and then ran to the girls room. Toadette raised her eyebrow as she was getting more and more suspicious of her ever since Kooper died.

As everyone was unpacking their stuff, Peach quickly walked to Rosalina.

"Hey...are you all right?" Peach calmly asked.

"No...Peach, that bullet should've hit me, not Kooper! I was the one that girl was aiming for, not him! It's all my fault..." Rosalina whispered.

"Rosalina...it's not your fault! Please don't pity yourself, any person in that situation would probably do the same thing you did. It was just unfortunate that fate had to have Kooper get killed instead but there's nothing you can do now. Life just goes on."

Rosalina took what she said all in. But she didn't know how long it would be for her to get over it.

Birdo was washing her hands in the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and saw that she was just tired and ready to go to sleep already. But then she noticed something under the sinks...

It was a beige piece of paper she hesitantly picked it up and read it out loud to herself:

**TO BIRDO:**

**I WILL GIVE YOU A SPECIAL ADVANTAGE IF YOU LURE THE REMAINING SURVIVORS IN TO THE HOTEL BASEMENT. I WILL DO THE REST. - LOLO.**

"Who the hell is LoLo!" Birdo thought to herself. But after re-reading the note, Birdo couldn't help but put on a devious little smile on her face.

"Hey, what's in the box?" Toad said as he went to the reception desk. There was an ordinary brown box on the desk.

"That wasn't there a minute ago!" Mario pointed out. Everyone went to it. Birdo got out of the bathroom, trying to put off her devious smile and went to where everyone was at.

"Sh-should we open it?" Koops asked, hoping there wasn't a trap.

"Hell no! Opening the box could cause another 'event' to happen!" Goombario yelled.

"He's right. We should just throw it away." Peach agreed.

"But wait, isn't that what 'Annastasia' wants us to do! Maybe it's something useful!" Miss Mowz said.

"Oh, come on, with all the stuff that's happened so far do you REALLY think something useful is in there!" Mimi pointed out.

"Well, we would never know until we open this." Parakarry said.

"Don't you hate it when people don't listen to you?" Peach asked herself outloud, which was referring to what she said about throwing the box away.

"This is so confusing, I don't wanna do this anymore!" Wendy shrieked and ran back to the living room area.

"Ugh, I'll open it!" DK said confidently. Almost everyone else was shaking in fear of what could be inside. Was it something useful? Or something dangerous? Or something that can mess with their minds?

EOC...

So, what do you think is in the box? Who do you think LoLo and Annastasia are? And do you think Birdo will go through with what the note in the bathroom said? And what do you think the keys with the symbols are for?


	5. Chapter 5

Last time, the remaining characters found a box on the reception desk and they were suspicious about what was inside it. Birdo also received a note in the bathroom from an unknown person...

* * *

Chapter 5: Deadly Gas

Dk ripped open the top of the box and found...

A piece of paper.

"Oh that's just freakin great, we were all scared from what was inside and it was just a plain and ordinary piece of paper! How ridiculous!" Daisy complained with a grunt.

"Ugh, I'll read it." DK said and took it in his hand. He read out loud:

19 survivors are left, but this is only just the beginning! You fill face some dangerous challenges, in fact some challenges so dangerous that it could kill you. One of the important things is to know who you trust. There will without a doubt be some betrayal and backstabbing as the game goes on. Who do you trust the least? The super strong monkey? The innocent looking toad girl? The green dino that everyone loves? The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom? The green hatted guy that's always in his brother's shadow? What about Bowser's little girl who was supposedly a villian to you good guys? Or what about the Koopa that is physically weak? Or maybe the least trustful is the red hatted super hero that saves the day all the time? You decide.

There was complete silence for a whole minute. But that very silence felt like everyone was dead, no breathing, no moving. Then they all looked at each other.

"Okay, this person is obviously trying to make us turn us against each other! I say, we just ignore what that says and pretend we never saw it!" Peach demanded.

"Agreed!" Mimi added. DK balled up the paper and threw it in the near by trash bin.

While everyone else went to the living room area to set up their sleeping mattresses and such, Birdo just stood there at the reception desk thinking deeply about that note. That note actually gave her more of a plan, and she couldn't help but smile deviously and excitedly once again.

"Um, I'll be right back guys. I have to go wash my hands cause I forgot to earlier!" Birdo quickly said then ran off. Everyone heard her, but Toadette stared at her weirdly. She was beginning to get more and more suspicious of Birdo.

"So, what's your plan?" Peach asked to Mario as she got her suitcase and zipped it open.

"What are you talking about?" Mario asked with a frustrated look.

"Well what I'm saying is, you usually have a plan for this kind of stuff and save the day. In fact, you always do, no matter hard it is!" She exclaimed while getting her blankets out.

"Peach...what we're dealing with is a person who wants to mess with us. Badly. I don't have a plan for this at all. Why do you expect me to anyway? Do you really think Super Mario will be around forever saving peoples lives? Sorry, but no. I have to have a cokpletely normal life someday ya know." Mario said seriously.

Peach just stared at him, then looked down. What he said was very true as Super Mario will soon fade away and there is left will be just regular Mario.

"Sigh...I guess that's what I get for wishful thinking." Peach said softly.

"Peach, I'm sorry...but I can't keep on doing this stuff forever. It's time that we actually figure something out as a team, not just me. I need some support too!" Mario then sighed depressingly. He had a tired look on his face and all this frustration wasn't making it any better.

"I know you're right but, I just can't trust myself." Peach whispered to herself.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Daisy asked, referring to Mario and Peach. She looked at them with curiousity.

"Probably personal stuff...why?" Said Luigi in a odd way.

"Just wondering." Daisy quickly replied.

"Daisy, I just wanna know something...will you be by my side through all of this? No matter what happens or how dangerous of a predicament we are in?" Luigi asked dramatically.

"Of course I will! You know I'll be by your side and I won't ever give up on us I can promise you that. You just gotta have faith in me." Daisy replied with a cute smile.

"I do have faith. I've always had faith ever since we were together." Luigi said softly while lowering his eyes to the ground. His face turned just plain for a few seconds as if he was thinking about something.

"I knew I should've never accepted to go here in the first place. Even Bowser didn't recommend it but I still went anyways! I'm so stupid!" Wendy yelled to herself while opening her duffle bag.

"You're not stupid." Mimi spoke. "You were just curious and excited for it but didn't know that this would happen. All of us didn't know this would happen so we just gotta stick together through this no matter what and I can guarantee you we will make it through this." Mimi then smiled trying to make Wendy more positive.

"Yeah you could be right. But this just seems so unreal ya know? Not even a kid could believe in this and they believe anything! ...So I'm told." Wendy said then looked to Mimi and they both giggled a bit. At that moment, there was an uplifting of everyone's spirits there as they talked about the good times in the past and such.

"And hey," Wendy continued. "Weren't you also a bad guy for some other evil team back in a place called...Flipside?"

"Yeah I was but after Mario defeated Dimentio, the most evil one in our group, we pretty much realized that being bad does nothing good to help ourselves at all and it can only make certain things much worse." She explained.

"Wow I'm the same way too! After Mario has defeated us so many times over the years, we decided to just stop being bad or else we would just be defeated again and again and again. Actually, only my brothers have turned good, Bowser and Kammy just don't know when to give up on defeating Mario even after 20 years of failed plans." Wendy explained to her. Mimi shook her head in agreement.

"Hey...are you doing ok?" Miss Mowz asked to Rosalina while she got out her blankets.

"Yeah I'm doing just fine." She pleasantly replied.

"Okay I'm just asking cause you seem so depressed after what happened." Miss Mowz said, trying not to remember Kooper's death too much.

"I know but I'm completely fine now and I realized that any person would've done the same thing I did in that situation and I didn't know so...yeah." Rosalina explained, trying to not look depressed.

"Alrighty then."

Birdo ran back in to the living room area.

"Oh my god you guys, you guys!" Birdo yelled in a rush.

"What what what!" Toad said, hoping for some interesting news.

"I...I just saw someone ran in to the Hotel basement! I went in there to look for the person but couldn't find them so I was thinking that you guys could help me! It may even be the person who set this thing up!" She said excitedly.

"Are you freakin serious? Let's go then!" Goombella gestured and everyone started to run to the basement.

"This way!" Birdo said as she lead the group to it. They were all getting more pumped up at this point, as they hope they could find someone who at least knows how to get out of the city; alive.

"She went in here..." She quietly said as she slowly opened the door to the basement. The room was big, but was filled with neatly stacked box piles all over the place.

"Okay this is what we do. Everybody, search the ENTIRE room and even the boxes as well as the person could be small enough to hide in them!" Mario said with obvious leadership. He didn't seem to mind the fact that he had to make a plan again by himself but then again, it was a simple plan.

But everyone understood his plan and they all ran down the stairs and split up and searched the whole room.

Yoshi, Toadette, and Toad were running around the whole room checking every corner and hiding spaces where a person could possibly hide at.

DK and Diddy were throwing the boxes everywhere as they wanted to just find the person already and plus they were incredibly impatient at that point.

Everyone else was carefully looking in the boxes to find if a person was actually hiding in there. So far, they found nothing except junk that looks like it hasn't been used for years.

Birdo was just standing near the staircase, waiting for something to happen, like it said in the paper she found. But then she noticed something. She saw a box that hadn't been opened that had her name on it like this: **B1R40**. She automatically knew that was her name as she was kind of a computer geek and it was in 1337 language (or just leet language).

She quickly walked to it and opened it with ease. She couldn't help but deviously smile at what she had found.

5 big gas cans. But not any normal gas cans, as Birdo right away noticed there was a skull and crossbones on each of them near the bottom and she knew what that meant. The gas inside the cans was poisonous. Birdo couldn't help but giggle.

She then heard a beeping noise. It sounded like an explosive tha was coming from inside the cans. She quickly backed away and went to the stairs.

"Ugh...nothing!" Said Toadette frustratingly as she tried to slow breathing as she was tired from running so fast.

"Yeah, nothing here also!" Diddy yelled then walked with DK and Dixie back to the staircase.

"We also got nothing!" Goombario yelled as he walked with Goombella and Koops to the staircase.

"Same here." Daisy added.

"This doesn't make any sense, how could a person just disappear like that? There are no other hiding places in here!" Parakarry said while rubbing his temples as if he had a headache.

"You sure you saw someone run in here Birdo?" Peach asked while raising her eyebrow as if she was really wondering whether Birdo told the truth or not.

"I am certainly positive that I saw someone go in here unless I was hallucinating which I doubt! Maybe the person escaped through an air vent?" Birdo said defensively.

"I don't seen any air vents here." Dixie said with a mysterious look towards look.

"Well maybe there is a secret room in here then." Birdo hesitantly said.

"I guess so." Koops said with a little attitude. Birdo was starting to sweat at this point. She knew they were on to her.

BOOM!

A small explosion in a box nearby caught off everyone by surprise. The box was on fire a little but suddenly a purple gassy smoke started to rise in the air.

"Umm...was that suppose to kill us?" Wendy asked outloud.

"Obviously not cause it was too small of an explosion but..." Goombella stopped talking as she noticed more purple smoke gas rose in to the air and started to spread.

"Oh my god, it's poison gas! EVERYBODY RUN!" Dk yelled as loud as he could. Everyone screamed and ran as fast as they could up the stairs. Since the stairs were thin, they had to wait as patiently as they could for others to move to get the hell out of here.

"GO GO FREAKIN GOOOOO!" Miss Mowz screamed as she was pushing the people in front of her to move faster.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, DK, Diddy, Dixie, Wendy, and Mimi all got out and ran to the lobby as fast as they could.

The remaining 10 were struggling to get up the stairs as Toad, who was in the front, was being pushed incredibly hard by Toadette, Birdo, and Parakarry which hurt him.

"Please hurry, please!" Rosalina pleaded as she was at the end and didn't want to die. The purple gas was spreading even more throughout the room and getting closer to the staircase.

"HURRY!" Goombario screamed. The group finally moved up which was a relief for everybody so they ran up the steps hesitantly.

Rosalina ran up a step, but unfortunately slipped forward which made her bang her head on the step and fall down the stairs to the ground. She was in immense pain.

"Oh no, Rosalina!" Yoshi yelled as he noticed her fall while he was the last one in there besides her. He ran down the stairs as quick as he could. Time was running out.

"No! Leave without me please!" Rosalina begged while she started to cry. Blood was also coming out of her forehead.

"I won't!" Yoshi yelled back. He noticed that the purple gas was hovering right above Rosalina. Yoshi held his breath so he couldn't breathe in the dangerous chemicals that were in the gas.

Rosalina started to cough a lot to the extreme in fact, it looks she was about to heave. Yoshi quickly grabbed her with his breath still held in and ran up the stairs.

Yoshi tripped. His eyes opened in shock because he accidentally let Rosalina go. He didn't want to let her go, but he did. At that point, he felt like a murderer. How could he have let go of Rosalina so easily? Yoshi knew he was stronger than that but obviously not strong enough to just carry a girl up the stairs without tripping.

Rosalina fell down the stairs yet again. Yoshi slowly looked back at her, even though he didn't want to. She was still coughing to the extreme and her nose was bleeding because of the gas that infiltrated her nostrils. She then started to cough up blood as too much gas in her body through her mouth. She was struggling to get up but felt too weak and hurt so she just let her head fall down to the ground and accepted her death.

Yoshi was in tears because of how he was so close to saving her. But then he realized it was just too late and there was nothing more he could do. He ran up the stairs and shut the door. He then ran to the lobby where everyone else was at.

"Yoshi! Thank god you are alive but...where is Rosalina?" Asked Peach while walking up to him.

"She..." Yoshi stuttered. "She's gone..."

"No..." Peach said in a shaky tone then dropped to her knees and started to sob.

"I just don't believe this...we lost another person so easily..." Luigi said while staring in to space.

The whole room was yet again silent for a moment.

"This is all her fault!" Dixie yelled, pointing to Birdo.

"What the hell are you talking about now!" Birdo yelled back.

"Well if we hadn't gone in to that basement then Rosalina wouldn't be dead! And you didn't see anybody, you were just bullshitting us so we could fall in to some trap!" She screamed. Birdo was getting angrier by the second.

Birdo slapped Dixie in the face which made her fall over.

"BIRDO!" Yoshi screamed in anger.

"I...I had to. She obviously wants everybody to turn against me cause she sees me as weak! Well too bad bitch you're not gonna get one on me!" Birdo said while cracking her knuckles.

"Ok guys just freakin stop it! This is ridiculous! We just had another person die so we don't want anyone else having to get hurt because of stupid accusations!" Goombella explained.

Dixie slowly got up with the help of Diddy and rubbed the spot on her left cheek where Birdo slapped her.

"Oh my god...you guys! The poison gas is still coming!" Daisy announced and pointed to the hallway they were just in. The purple gas slowly moved to the hallway intersection and started to slowly move up to the lobby.

"Shoot! We gotta get outta here!" Parakarry yelled and everyone got out of the hotel with ease.

"Well, looks like we're not gonna be going in there for a while..." Koops said while he shook his head.

"Just great, and this had to have happened right before we went to bed too!" Toad complained.

Mario looked back at the parking lot and saw the silver van he drove and the black car the other six drove as well. He suddenly got a bright idea.

"I got it!" Mario proudly announced.

"Yes, yes!" Daisy said excitedly hoping Mario would have a good plan.

"Alright, I have the keys to the silver van and I'm guessing one of you who drove the black car has the keys also. So, since there are 18 of us left I think we all could just fit in the silver van and the black car. So what I'm saying is, someone will be driving the silver van and someone else will be driving the black car with people in it! Then we can all drive to the Mushroom Kingdom and finally be safe at home!" Explained Mario. Everyone else had excited looks on their faces.

"Yes! That's perfect!" Wendy cheered.

"Finally! We get to go home! Praise the lord!" Peach yelled oddly at the sky.

"Well Mario, judging by the interior size of the van and the car I say...we can fit 11 people in the van and 6 people in the car without any 'space' complications of course. 98 percent chance I am right." Goombario said while looking carefully at the vehicles.

"Wait a second...that's 17 people though that can get in a car, that means we have to leave one person behind!" Toadette said with a gasp.

EOC.

So, Rosalina had unfortunately died because of LoLo taking advantage of the game. Mario came up with a plan that can get them out of Crescent City but they have to leave one person behind. Who do you think should be left behind? Will Birdo ever go back to her good ways? Who is LoLo and Annastasia?


	6. Chapter 6

Last time, Goombario carefully studied the interior space of both cars and realized that only 11 people could fit in the silver van and 6 people could fit in the black car without any space complications. So what's gonna happen now?

* * *

Chapter 6: Unknown Caller

"So...we have to leave a person behind, huh?" Daisy re-stated.

Everyone looked to Birdo.

"So freakin obvious that you people decided to choose me to stay behind. It wasn't my fault that Rosalina died but whatever, you people wanna believe everything that you want to believe." Birdo said defensively with a slightly annoyed look.

"Well, Birdo, no offense but you ARE kinda the most suspicious one here so..." Diddy said.

"I don't care. Just go on without me. But let me tell you this, the person who's running this game WANTS you to take those cars and attempt to leave Crescent City. Your plan won't work Mario, trust me." Birdo explained and everyone looked at her in confusion.

"Well really it's the only plan we got now so we have no other choice." Mario told her but Birdo just rolled her eyes. "Come on everyone, we have to go."

"I, I'm staying with Birdo!" Yoshi yelled and everyone turned to him in shock.

"Are you out of your mind! She's so obviously the betrayer of this group! She showed no emotion after Rosalina died and she was clearly lieing about when she saw someone run in to the basement!" Toadette yelled back while Birdo gave her a dirty look.

"YOU are the one who is out of your mind! Stop trying to put this whole group against me! Do you know what? I think YOU and DIXIE are the betrayers because you and her tried to put the whole blame on me for what just happened!" Birdo yelled, almost screaming at her. Everyone gasped.

"Are you freakin kidding me? I don't think anybody here thinks it's just coincidence that Rosalina died in the basement where you, yourself, saw some person run in to their! You are obviously working with the mastermind behind all this, bimbo!" Dixie insulted which got Birdo even more angry.

"I think all 3 of you are the betrayers in this! Yeah, that's right, I said it." Parakarry spoke. Everyone gasped yet again.

"Oh give me a freakin break, what the hell makes you think that?" Toadette said with her hands at her hips.

"Well first off, you and Dixie are trying to put the blame on Birdo but, Birdo is doing the same thing right back which is uqually as suspicious. I say, you're all just acting like this just to make us confused." He deduced. The 3 girls gave him evil looks.

"Well, look who is little mister peacemaker of this group! Tell me, why should we think that you are not a betrayer?" Dixie asked, raising her eyebrow.

"CAN WE PLEASE JUST STOP THIS!" Goombella screamed as loud as she could. "This is seriously getting out of hand! Let's just go and leave Birdo cause she's the most suspicious one here as of now!"

"I agree with Goombella. We really do need to leave before it's too late..." Koops added.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Asked Toad.

"Umm, I meant that if we just stand around here arguing and whatnot, the 'mastermind' would be creating his next plan for us and it will be too late." He explained.

Birdo laughed. "You guys aren't gonna make it. But go ahead, do what you want..."

"Koops is right we have to leave right now, so let's go!" Mario said and him and everyone else except for Yoshi and Birdo ran to the cars. Mimi stopped.

"Yoshi...are you coming or not?" She asked quickly as she wanted to leave very badly.

Yoshi looked at her, then to Birdo and sighed.

"I...I'll come with you guys. I'm so sorry Birdo...I really am..." Said Yoshi depressingly then ran as fast as he could to the cars with Mimi.

Birdo didn't say a word instead, she just shook her head and sighed as well. She wondered what she was gonna do now that all this is happening.

Mario got in the drivers seat of the Van and Peach got in the passengers seat. Daisy, Luigi, Goombella and Goombario got in the First back passenger seat and Yoshi, Dixie, Diddy, and DK got in the Second back passenger seat.

"What the frick? Where am I suppose to sit!" Koops complained.

"Oh, just sit on the floor next to me!" Peach complained back and Koops sat on the floor between the driver and passenger seat.

"I got the keys so I'm driving!" Mimi announced.

"No way! Did you see how you drove last time? I'm driving whether you like it or not!" Wendy complained.

"Shut up! I drove perfectly fine last time and none of us got hurt so quit being a baby for pete's sake!" Mimi yelled back.

"Ugh, you're such a total skank!" Wendy insulted.

"And you're a total bitch!" Mimi insulted back.

"You gotta be kidding me, we're gonna get nowhere with these two morons fighting!" Said Toad.

"Screw this!" Yelled Parakarry and quickly flew to Mimi and stole her keys easily.

"HEY!" She screamed. "Give those back right now!"

"Hell no! I'm the one who's driving and if you don't like that well you can go screw yourself!" Said Parakarry who was obviously getting to be too annoyed.

"Gosh, what a jerk!" Wendy commented.

"I know, right!" Mimi agreed.

Parakarry quickly got in the driver's seat and Miss Mowz got in the passenger seat while Toad, Toadette, Mimi, and Wendy got in the back seat.

Both Parakarry and Mario started up their ignition. Mario was the first to go as he knew where the exit was from the last "mission" and wanted to take the lead. He slowly drove out of the parking lot and got on to the main street with Parakarry's car following very closely behind.

Meanwhile, Birdo was just sitting down on the steps of the staircase, wondering what she is gonna do now.

"I can't believe those fools actually think they will get out of here alive! What a bunch of idiots!" Birdo said to herself. "Sigh...I wonder if they're gonna try to blame me for their car breaking down or a similar situation that will happen..."

Suddenly, there was a ring the distance which made Birdo jump in surprise. It wasn't coming from the inside of the hotel, no...it was coming from a nearby telephone booth. She wondered why someone would be calling a telephone but then realized that it could be something important. She ran to the booth as fast as she could and got the phone and held it to her ear.

"He...hello?" Birdo stuttered, nervous about what the person will say.

"There is a small box behind the hotel near the emergency exit that contains poisonous ingredients that can be added to any food or drink. Grab the box, go in the hotel, and go to the kitchen. Open the box and carefully set the bottled ingredients on a nearby open shelf near the stove and pot heaters. I've already cleared the gas up in the hotel so you can freely go in there." Said the voice. It sounded kinda raspy.

"Umm..." Was all Birdo could say then. She was excited about playing against her friends at first, but now she realizes that doing more of it could get her in to even more trouble.

"I'm not gonna do it! I've already have a few of my friends go against me cause they think I lead them down to the basement to kill them, so no more of this!" She yelled and started to sob a bit.

"If you don't do it then I'll kill you." The voice said. Birdo opened her eyes wide in shock. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Was it really worth it to go through with this and have your friends go against you even more?

BANG!

A bullet shot through the glass of the booth, right above Birdo's head which caught her by surprise and made her drop down. She started to sob even more as she didn't want to do it badly but she didn't want to be killed either. She stood up and slowly looked around to see where the bullet was shot from. She didn't see anything. How was that possible? The person had to be somewhere in order to shoot Birdo. She looked at the phone for a few seconds and picked it up again.

"...Fine. I'll do it." Birdo said with a gulp. The voice laughed evilly as it knew that Birdo would go through with it. She put the phone back in its place slowly and started to walk to the back of the Hotel.

MEANWHILE...

* * *

"Okay, if what I remember is right, the exit should be north of here so we keep going straight and we should be either on the freeway or near it." Mario explained. The van and Parakarry's car were in the same lane and Parakarry's was right behind Mario's van.

"I suggest we all put on our seatbelts as we could very possibly be heading towards gangs that could shoot at us for no reason." Diddy announced.

"Oh great, just what we need!" Goombella complained while fastening her seatbelt.

"Hey! I don't have a seatbelt!" Koops whined.

"Oh just hold on to my arm rest." Peach said while putting the armrest down for him to hold. "Thanks!"

"Are you sure you should be driving? I mean, aren't you more use to flying?" Miss Mowz asked.

"Please. I've driven cars longer than you think I have. Now you all may wanna hold on tight cause I have a feeling something is about to go down." Parakarry said while driving forward as Mario was driving forward.

"How would you know THAT?" Toadette asked but Parakarry didn't respond.

"Alright...so far so good!" Luigi excitedly said. Both the van and car have successfully passed 3 intersections without any trouble whatsoever.

"Ooh! There's the exit over there! It leads to the freeway!" Yoshi pointed out. There were at another intersection they had to stop at, but straight forward was a road that shrunk to only two lanes that lead a little higher to the freeway.

"Yes! We are SO out of here!" Dixie cheered.

"Finally..." Goombario whispered then gave a sigh of relief.

The light turned green. Mario put his foot on the pedal and drove his Van as fast as he could across the intersection and Parakarry did the same thing.

**BANG!**

A bullet shot through the right window and almost hit Luigi.

"AAAHHHHHH! OH MY GOD!" Daisy screamed.

"SHIT!" Mario panicked as he lost a little control of his driving.

**BANG!**

Another bullet shot through, this time it went through the passengers window where Peach was at.

"OH MY GOD! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Peach screamed as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

**BANG!**

Yet another bullet was shot, but this time it hit the front right tire, making it spin out of control.

"Somebody help us!" Yoshi screamed as the van was going out of control and bumping a lot.

As Mario tried to regain control of the van, someone ran in to the middle of the road before them which caught them by total surpise.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" They all screamed as Mario turned sharply to the left, which made the van go down a small, grassy hill. Mario tried to control the van as best as he could but it was just no use.

The car then slammed in to a big tree which made everyone sharply lean forward then back. The glass on the wind shield were smashed open.

"Oh no...oh no no no no no no! Mario's van went totally out of control!" Mimi shrieked.

"Should we still keep going? It's obvious that those wannabe gangbangers attempted to kill the others!" Wendy said.

"Well I am gonna take our chances!" Said Parakarry. He floored down the pedal and drove as fast as he could to the freeway.

But then, out of nowhere, 3 huge wine bottles were suddenly thrown on to the windshield which smashed it a little.

"SHOOT! I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!" Parakarry screamed and lost control of his driving which ended up driving the car off the road, down the grassy hill, and in to a river. The car was already starting to flood.

"Shoot shoot shoot!" Mimi repeatedly shrieked. "Everybody, get out of here!" Everyone opened their doors to get out, which brought more water in, but they got out with ease and got on to dry land.

"Just great, now my clothes are all soaked now!" Toad complained.

"How could you be worrying about your clothes at a time like this! Let's go get the others!" Toadette recommended.

The six went to the crashed van site. Everyone suprisingly didn't get hurt but the car was messed up real bad.

"Well...looks like Birdo was right. We're not getting out of here that easily, and I knew we wouldn't. Now we just lost our transportation vehicles that could've been used to get some help." Said Luigi.

"Help? Are you kidding me? No one in this City is gonna help us! This place is beyond dangerous and it's probably dominated by tons of criminals! The only help we're getting is from each other." Goombella statd.

"I just don't understand why we are being tortured this way. What is the motive behind all of this? And what did we do to deserve it?" Diddy asked.

"We might not ever figure out who this was. The only clues we have is from our two names: Annastasia and LoLo. They're obviously cover up names, but who exactly?" Said Peach.

"Let's just go back to the Hotel and try to piece everything together. I think that, the sooner we find out who is behind this, the sooner we can find the person and be set free." Said Yoshi, and everyone agreed with him and they all started to walk back to the Hotel.

* * *

Birdo was in the Kitchen and brought the box in and slammed it down on a silver table.

"If I hadn't tricked everyone to go in to the basement, none of this would've ever happened! WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE TARGET!" Birdo shouted and kicked the table. She was so frustrated at that point, that she was probably about to lose her mind. She decided to calm down, and open the box.

She got out a purple, small plastic thin bottle. There was a sticky note on it that said, "Use this for extra flavor!". The cinnamon-y like ingredient was beige and it looked too suspicious. Birdo knew what would happen if someone tasted it. She couldn't that she was being picked on to go through with this.

EOC.

Yeah yeah, I know, short chapter. But do you think Birdo will go through with putting out the bottle of the "Extra Flavor" for everyone to see when they get hungry? And who is LoLo and Annastasia?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Tasty Treats

The group of 17 began walking back to the hotel in a forest near the creek.

"Alright, can someone tell me why we're going back to the Hotel in a FOREST when we should be walking to there in the City?" Daisy asked.

"Are you kidding me? The entire city is practically dangerous with every criminal around a corner! No way will we be able to survive that!" Goombario complained.

"Oh yeah and a forest is SOOOOO much safer." Said Wendy sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

"IF YOU WANNA KEEP COMPLAINING, THEN GO WALK IN THE CITY THEN! NO ONE EVER ASKED YOU TO WALK WITH US!" Mario screamed. They were all surprised at his sudden outburst.

"Huh...you know Mario, you sure have been acting weird and quiet the whole time we have been here and now you just all suddenly exploded in anger? Seems too suspicious if you ask me..." Goombella said. Everyone was starting to get more confused from her accusation.

"Wait what are you talking about? Are you saying that we shouldn't trust Mario?" Asked Peach with fear in her eyes.

"No but I definitely think we should keep our eyes out for him. Just because he's a national hero doesn't mean we can trust him so much." She answered.

"Maybe you're the one we shouldn't trust." Parakarry spoke.

"Excuse me?" Goombella replied.

"I said, maybe you're the one we shouldn't trust." He repeated.

"Come to think of it, you're super smart Goombella so you can easily come up with a diabolical plan to backstab any one of us...even Goombario." Said Toadette.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me. So because I'm a genius, I'm gonna most likely gonna hurt someone? That's a complete generalization and an ignorant one at that." Goombella said. She was getting more and more ticked off.

"Well, no. But IF someone were to backstab any of us, it would most likely be you because you are the smartest one here." Toadette said again. Goombella clenched her teeth.

"Wait!" Toad yelled. "What about Goombario? He's just as smart as Goombella!"

"WHAT? Stop trying to put the suspicions on me you moron! If you think I'm the evil one in this group, then you have another thing coming!" Goombario yelled.

"Overly defensive much? And you already seem to be getting incredibly nervous as well." Dixie pointed out. They were all starting to turn against each other.

"Well what about you Miss Banana Hair!" Yelled Mimi. "You were the FIRST one to throw suspicion on Birdo! Maybe you only did that to make yourself look innocent!"

"Give me a break, it's obvious that Birdo is the current backstabber of us at the moment. Stop jumping to conclusions." Dixie replied, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe Birdo is actually innocent?" DK spoke. Everyone looked at him.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? She was the one who lead us to the basement to try to find some "person" she saw run in there, we couldn't find the "person" and all of a sudden this box explodes, releasing a deadly gas that killed Rosalina. That was NOT a coincidence!" Dixie shouted.

"Sorry Dixie but you sure seem to jump at Birdo a lot. Ever thought that maybe she was forced to either do it or be killed?" Koops said. Everyone wonder about that actually.

"Well...umm...I actually didn't think about that. But still, the chances that she's backstabbing us are still high." Dixie said with an impatient look on her face.

"Well, the point here guys is that you can not take every single little that someone says or does and label it as suspicious. Birdo is most likely the betrayer of all of us and I'm pretty sure all of you agree with that, so let's just stick with that suspicion for now." Miss Mowz stated. Everyone seemed to agree with her.

"Birdo was right about our plan not working though. Even I thought it wouldn't work." Yoshi spoke. Everyone looked towards him.

"Pffft. Anyone could have predicted that the plan wouldn't work. She just got lucky, that's all." Dixie said with a slightly angry look.

"Why do you continue to jump on Birdo's case? We pretty much know that she's the betrayer of the group and yet you still act way too offensive towards her." Goombario said in a cocky way. Goombella gave a weird look towards him.

"Because I want to make sure that all of you know that Birdo is working with the mastermind behind this." Dixie hesitantly answered. Luigi raised his eyebrow.

"...Right. Let's just keep going." Goombario suspiciously said while Dixie just shook her head.

Dixie: I don't believe this, I'm getting suspected just cause I suspect Birdo being a part of the mastermind's plans and it's SO obvious that she is!

Luigi: I'm so worried now. We are all turning against each other and I have a feeling it could lead to someone getting killed.

Goombella: This is just getting to be ridiculous. I need some trust-worthy on my side so I won't have to look as suspicious...

Mario: Ha! They seriously think I'm also the betrayer as well? Please, they don't even have a clue, all they have is assumptions...

HOTEL:

"Screw it. Whatever happens, will happen." Birdo said to herself. She put the "Extra Flavor" bottle on a small shelf that was right near the stove and oven. She quickly ran out of the kitchen and in to the living room as she didn't even want to think about what she did anymore.

RING!

The telephone on the reception desk gave out an extremely loud ring noise that almost gave Birdo a heart attack. She walked fast over to the phone. She wanted to pick it up and answer it, but at the same time, she didn't want to. She decided to just pick it up anyway.

"H-hello?" Birdo stuttered. She was scared on what the person on the other line might make her do next.

"Good. I'm glad you followed all my instructions. You are free to go now and as I promised, here is your advantage..." The raspy voice said.

Suddenly a box was thrown in to the hotel and landed perfectly on the floor. Birdo was again, surprised by the sudden "advantage" that appeared. She quickly opened the box, eager to find what's inside and found...

A big laser blaster. Birdo gasped as she had only seen this kind of stuff only on the internet. There was also a note inside:

This can only be used once, so use it wisely. And try to keep it hidden from the others! - Annastasia.

"Oh...my god. This is just...wow, I can't even explain it. This will DEFINITELY come in use if those assholes try to gang up on me." Birdo said to herself with yet another devious smile. She grabbed the laser blaster and put it in her duffel bag and threw the box away. Birdo didn't even care at this point if someone got posioned by the "Extra Flavor" bottle as she already has a very useful weapon to use just in case anyone proves that she put that there. Now all she had to do is wait for the others to come back...

The group had surprisingly made it to the Hotel unharmed and fine. But they were all still suspicious of each other even more now because of what has been said and done.

"Oh, let me guess: both cars broke down and you had to walk all the way back here?" Birdo asked with a smirk.

"Yeah yeah, you were right the whole time so don't even rub it in please..." Diddy said, annoyed.

"So what were YOU doing this whole time? Helping out the evil mastermind's plans?" Mimi said. Birdo got angry again but decided to stay calm for now.

"Nope. I just sat here the whole time you were gone. Any other questions?" Birdo asked, trying to hold back her smirk.

"...No." Mario answered. Everyone was still suspicious of Birdo but they weren't as high cause of all the accusations that were made after the car crashes.

"Well what should we do now guys? It's obvious we're not gonna sleep over this so, should we try to find some clues?" Miss Mowz asked, pacing back and forth.

"I have a good idea!" Luigi snapped. "Why don't I bake all of us pancakes? I'm pretty sure all of us very hungry and tired and Food will definitely fuel us up! What do you say?"

"Pancakes? ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?" Toad screamed. "Of course you should you bake them! I'm so hungry, I could eat a barbecued dog!"

"Yeeeaahhh...anyways, so I shall go do that and hopefully the food will help take our minds off this for a while." Said Luigi then happily ran to the kitchen.

"Well at least we get something to eat. I'm definitely gonna eat a lot." Wendy said.

"Man, I need to make an alliance or something. I'm the second most suspected one here so I have to find people I trust, defend me." Dixie whispered to herself while looking around. She smirked as she saw Toad, Toadette, Peach, Wendy, and Yoshi. Dixie pulled Diddy to her first.

"What are you doing?" Diddy whispered loudly.

"Shush! I'm making an alliance here. You HAVE to be a part of it or else I don't know what I would do. Peach, Wendy, Toad, Toadette, and Yoshi will join as well." Dixie told him.

"Why? What's the point of all this?" He asked.

"Cause I'm the 2nd most suspected person in the group and if Birdo dies, they will go after me next and those 5, including you, are the ones that I trust the most." She explained.

"Well...alright then." Diddy sighed.

Dixie quickly walked around the room and got the 5 to come with her near the end of the left hallway along with Diddy.

"Okay what is the meaning of all this?" Wendy pouted.

"I'm forming an alliance and I want you all to be a part of it cause I think I trust you guys the most." Dixie explained.

"But what is the point of this though? Everyone should be working together, not a small group of people!" Peach said.

"I know, but you must realize that you can't trust every person here but I trust you guys the most and you have to trust me. Together, we can all dominate whoever is the most suspicious in the group and take them out with ease. What do you say?" Dixie quickly said, trying to catch her breath. Everyone gave her a different look.

"But how should we trust you that you won't backstab us in the future then?" Toadette asked.

"Because I'm the one who made this alliance, so why is there any need to backstab any one of you anyway?" She asked.

"Good point. Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to join you, Dixie." Toad said with a smile.

"Good! But you can't tell ANYONE though! Doing that will only cause major suspicion on me, got it?" Dixie said, and everyone immediately understood and the 5 left to go back in the Lobby room.

"Hey...how come you didn't ask DK to join the alliance?" Diddy asked. Dixie's eyes got more open.

"Because DK is a major threat. He is the strongest person in the group and will definitely stop at no limit to beat someone up. So basically, he will overpower the alliance if he finds out something suspicious about us that's actually not. So you can NOT tell him whatsoever!" She demanded.

"Sigh...alright then..."

In the kitchen, Luigi was just about done with the pancakes. He got a plate out and set the big pile on it and got out a bar of butter and syrup from a mini-fridge.

"Right then! This should totally taste good and calm us down and- hello, what's this?" Luigi said to himself, noticing a small bottle that had a tiny paper taped on it, written: Use this for extra flavor!

"Extra flavor, huh? Well I guess it couldn't hurt!" Luigi said excitedly and sprinkled the cinnamon-y like ingredient over each pancake.

Back in the Lobby, everyone was getting impatient cause they were all so hungry and wanted to re-fuel their energy.

"God, I am so FREAKIN hungry! WHEN ARE THE PANCAKES GONNA BE DONE?" Goombario shouted and starting pacing fast back and forth.

"Just calm down, Goombario. It should be ready any minute now." Goombella said. She actually think he was gonna go crazy.

"Well if it doesn't then I swear to god I am gonna someone eat myself!" He shouted. A few people gasped.

"Please, you wouldn't eat someone and I REALLY doubt that you're THAT hungry. Sit the hell down." Mario said.

"You don't know ME, Mario! I get hungry and starve easily and that's how it is for every Goomba, right Goombella?" Goombario said in a fast way.

"Um...no. I've researched about the Goomba body back at U Goom and it has basically the same functions as the human being and actually the average Goomba doesn't get as hungry as easily that the human body does." She stated. Everyone gave Goombario a dirty look.

"Oh, what do you know anyway? BRING ON THE PANCAKES!" Goombario yelled in a rush.

"Umm the fact that she's one of the smartest goombas ever furthers the evidence of that. I think you're up to something..." Mimi said.

"Up to something? Don't make me laugh! I'm one of the more innocent ones here!" Said Goombario with a smirk.

"Nobody here is innocent..." Parakarry whispered.

"Pancakes are ready!" Luigi happily announced as he carried a stack of paper plates that haf a lot of pancakes on top of the top plate.

"FINALLY!" Everyone cheered and ran to Luigi and grabbed a pancake and a paper plate.

"YES! I WON'T STARVE TO DEATH LIKE I ALWAYS DREAMED I WOULD!" Toad cheered and started eating his pancake like crazy.

Everyone got their pancake and sat down first, while people were passing around the butter and syrup. No one ate their pancake yet except for Toad, because they wanted it to taste extra good with the butter and syrup.

"Thanks Luigi. We owe you big time for this." Daisy smiled.

"Don't mention it! I'm just glad we finally got something to eat that will hopefully put us in a better mood." Luigi said, while spreading butter all over his pancake.

"Gosh, this pancake looks like HEAVEN to me! Pass the syrup please!" Mimi said with excitement.

"Let's just hope that these pancakes aren't poisoned!" Parakarry said outloud. Everyone looked to him with scared looks.

"Or maybe I shouldn't have said that..."

"Great job moron, now you're gonna make us all paranoid!" Goombario yelled.

"HEY! I WAS JUST SPEAKING MY THOUGHTS!" Parakarry lashed back.

"Well maybe you should do less speaking then!" Goombario yelled back.

"WILL YOU PLEASE JUST STOP THIS!" Miss Mowz screamed and they both looked at her. "We're not gonna get anywhere with this if we keep yelling at each other all the time! So please just stop it!"

Everyone was silent for a minute.

"OHHHHHHH!" Toad screamed and fell to the floor on his back, holding his stomach.

"TOAD! What's going on? PLEASE TELL ME!" Toadette cried and shook him.

"God...my stomach feels like it's gonna explode..." Toad uttered. Toadette started to cry.

"Wait, so those pancakes were poisoned!" Koops said shockingly. Everyone looked at Birdo.

"Oh yes, Birdo MUST have done this because she's being falsely accused of being a betrayer. You guys are beyond ridiculous." Birdo said, rolling her eyes yet again.

"It's pretty obvious you're the backstabber here, Birdo. You led us into the basement where you "saw" someone, but no one was there and Rosalina was killed and you were left behind for a long while because our cars crashed and we had to walk home, so who knows what you could've done while we were gone?" Diddy explained.

"I say, the evidence is highly stacked upon you. You are definitely backstabber material." Goombella said.

"You might as well just confess now, seeing as there is nowhere else to run." Mario said threateningly. Everyone except Toad and Toadette were backing her in to a corner and Birdo was getting nervous by the second.

"Shoot! They are so on to me! I need a backup plan...AHA!" Birdo though, and tried not to smirk.

"Birdo...how could you do this? And why would you do this?" Yoshi asked, his eyes getting a bit watery.

"Well, I...I..." Birdo stuttered and looked at the floor to see that her duffel bag was right next to her. She quickly zipped it open, got out the big laser blaster and aimed it.

"SHIT! GET DOWN!" DK screamed and everyone got down, just in case she was gonna shoot a laser at any of them. She aimed it at Toad, and pulled the trigger.

A huge blue laser shot out of the blaster and blasted Toad, setting him on fire and killing him immediately.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Toadette cried and fell to her knees.

"Um...uhhh..." Birdo uttered in panic and decided to throw the laser blaster at Dixie's head, which knocked her out.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Parakarry swore and was shocked that he saw Toad's lifeless body burning on the floor.

"SHIT!" Birdo screamed and ran out of the lobby and ran into the stairwell.

"GO AFTER HER!" Mario ordered and everyone ran in rage after Birdo, the backstabber of the group.

"Dixie, come on get up, please! Birdo just killed Toad and we need you now!" Diddy said, shaking Dixie's knocked out body.

"What am I gonna do now without Toad...-sniff- This just isn't fair...I don't know how I am gonna go on now..." Toadette whispered to herself, crying and letting out every tear that she could. Birdo was not only a backstabber, but a murderer and was working with the mastermind (sort of).

EOC.

Well, Toad is dead now unfortunately and Birdo had killed him. Do you think Birdo will escape from the group's rage towards her? Who do you suspect being a betrayer other than Birdo? 


End file.
